I haven't been as frequent with updates here this week as I'd planned, because I've been busy building and setting up my new PC.
My old PC had a Core i7-860, and it didn't have any modern connection features like USB 3 or SATA 3 (which was holding my SSD's performance back). My old motherboard was also on its way out; on-board audio and ethernet had gone out a while ago (and the only PCI ethernet adapter I had was a 100 mbit adapter, which made transferring files to my NAS slow), it recently started having issues keeping my CMOS settings intact (replacing the CMOS battery didn't help), and it was starting to have trouble recognizing two of my RAM slots. So yeah, it was definitely time for an upgrade. I've had that old PC for like 6 years, which is by far the longest I've ever gone before upgrading a CPU, so it had a good run.
Here's the parts list for my new PC:
- Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Titanium (with window) +two extra fans
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170X-UD5
- CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K
- CPU Cooler: Scythe Kotetsu SCKTT-1000 (with Arctic MX2 thermal paste)
- Power Supply: Corsair RM650i
- RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 4x8GB (32GB total) DDR4 2666
Parts salvaged from my old PC:
- EVGA GeForce GTX 780
- Corsair Force GT 480GB SSD
- Crucial M550 960GB SSD
- Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB hard drive
- Pioneer Blu-ray RW drive
I have to say, I really, really like the Define R5 case. It's a bit on the large side, but it looks really nice, it seems sturdy and well-built, it's super easy to work in, and it's very quiet. In fact, I'm pretty sure if I had one of the current generation video cards that turned its fans off under low load, this PC would be completely silent, because I think that's the only thing in this case making any sound at all, and it's not making much. That Scythe Kotetsu CPU cooler isn't messing around, either; at idle, my CPU's temperature is 25C, and while playing games, I haven't yet seen it reach 40C, all while remaining nearly silent.
Here's a gallery of photos of my new PC, inside and out. I've included a photo of the inside of my old PC so you can see what a rat's nest of wires it was in there, to compare it against the really nice cable routing features in the Define R5. Being able to run the cables behind the motherboard really makes a big difference.
Now that I have it all set up and have most of my software reinstalled, I should be able to get back to creating things again, so hopefully I'll be updating this site more frequently.